Only the “normal” versions of the bosses listed have a chance to drop the recipes. The Infernal Machine bosses will not drop them.

(Tangentially related, but a good FYI: I’ve confirmed that the recipes can be sold to a vendor as well as dropped on the ground. They can also be sold on Auction House, since they’re not BoA.)

The new Rare crafted items currently aren’t designed to salvage back into a Demonic Essence. Right now they’re set to salvage into Rare crafting materials, just like other Rare items.

We’re thinking about allowing the items to have a very small chance to salvage into a Demonic Essence, but that’s definitely not a confirmed decision. It won’t be something that’s available on the first build of the PTR.

The new crafting recipes are not consumed on use, no.

We wanted them to be on bosses so players have a more “targeted” location to farm for the recipes, similar to the way that the Infernal Machine recipe worked (but obviously not exactly the same). We also chose the bosses we did specifically, as they are generally less farmed than others.

As for why a 50% drop rate? It’s a problem of competing goals:

1. Add something to the game to act as gold sink
2. Add something to the game that’s thematically interesting

In order to achieve 1, whatever we add needs to widely available. In order to achieve 2, we can’t just distribute those additions solely through vendors.

We’d also rather have a situation where the recipes are selling for vendor cost on the Auction House rather than one where only a few people have access to them (and their respective items). We’ll see how things go on the PTR. We also wouldn’t be opposed to reducing the drop rates over time if that’s what’s best for the health of the game.

As we noted in our Patch 1.0.7 Preview, Elite monsters in Inferno will have a chance to drop an account-bound crafting reagent called Demonic Essence. We also intend for bosses in Inferno to have a chance to drop Demonic Essences, but that change may not be active until

Oh, and because I’ve seen people asking: Hellfire Rings will salvage into Brimstones and some Tears in 1.0.7, same as other Legendary items (though I don’t believe that change will be available in the first build of the PTR).

This wasn’t mentioned in the preview, but is it a change we’re planning for the next patch.

Someone suggested we could be stuck with piles of worthless Fiery Brimstones as they could be replaced by the new Demonic Essence]. Lylirra clarifies:

Don’t believe that’s planned, but one of the new crafted items (the amulet) will require Brimstones as a reagent.

We know that this likely won’t resolve the Brimstone surplus completely, and we may end up adding Brimstones as a reagent for some of the other recipes and/or changing the current cost for the amulet. It’s something we’ve discussed, and we’re open to your thoughts on the matter.

Even so, the new Rare items already have a fairly high reagent cost, and we don’t want to make crafting them too prohibitive, as that will mean we won’t see much movement of commodities out of the economy. When it comes to item sinks, it’s usually better to have a larger number of players crafting items with a slightly less expensive reagent cost than it is to have a very small number of players crafting items with a much more exorbitant cost.

Speaking of, I feel it’s important to note that the crafting costs of items being introduced in 1.0.7 are subject to change, so please keep that in mind before liquidating certain assets (or, conversely, stocking up on others).

We did/do plan on having at least one of the Rare crafted items require a Brimstone to make.

Is Nephalem Valor required for Demonic Essences to drop and will new crafted items get a colour change.

Under the current design which is shipping with the PTR, Nephalem Valor will not be required in order for Demonic Essences to drop.

Economy

As Flux demonstrated in his article yesterday the recent revelation of changes to come sent gem prices skyrocketing. A poster wanted to know if Blizzard are aware of the influence blue posts can have on the economy:

Yes, we’re definitely aware of that effect and do take it heavily into consideration whenever we post. At the same time, we also want to be as transparent as possible with players about the game and upcoming changes to it, so it’s an incredible tightrope to walk. In some cases, we may choose not to post about a certain topic due to the potential impact it could have on the economy, or otherwise delay our response to help mitigate it. In others, we accept the risk, acknowledge your concern, and provide some insight — even if it’s vague — about what we’re doing to address the issue (this is what we chose to do with the earlier Brimstone post of mine you referenced).

For this particular situation, even if we didn’t release the patch preview, and even if I didn’t post about Brimstones today, as soon as the PTR hits and crafting recipe info goes public, the same thing you described would happen. By your logic, should we not have a PTR then, because players will respond a certain way on the Auction House? There are some situations where the long-term health of the game (or our long-term relationship with the community) need to take precedence.

PTR Exploit

A previous exploit that allowed people to id items they had transferred to the PTR server, selling on the poor items on their live characters on the AH as unidentified items, (knowing full well they are shitty). This will no longer be possible.

For the patch 1.0.7 PTR, unidentified items cannot be copied over from the live client to the PTR client.

Since there won’t be any warning or error messages for this restriction (the stash/inventory slots which held the unindentified items will just appear empty once your character is copied over), we’ll be creating a reminder post in the PTR Feedback forum once the PTR is live.

Bugged Achievements

There is a bug on the PTR which is preventing certain Achievements from being completed. Blizzard are aware of this and a fix is being pursued.

I just wanted to jump in really quickly to let you guys know that the issues with these achievements are definitely on our radar. We’re currently working on bug fixes for some of them, and we’ll let you know just as soon as they’re ready for primetime. We know that many of you are eager to complete these challenging achievements, but they won’t be ready for the initial 1.0.7 PTR build we have coming out, and we don’t have a current ETA for when the fixes will be implemented.

Comments

“We know that this likely won’t resolve the Brimstone surplus completely, and we may end up adding Brimstones as a reagent for some of the other recipes and/or changing the current cost for the amulet. It’s something we’ve discussed, and we’re open to your thoughts on the matter.”

lol

I know they had had an economist on staff to design and balance the D3 economy. Whatever happened to that guy ?

And did the devs put ANY thought into crafting and crafting materials before this game came out ?

some things about this game are really fun, but other things are just so confounding.